Quotes of the day

posted at 10:41 pm on July 14, 2014 by Allahpundit

Democrats in tough reelection races have a blunt message for President Obama: Keep away…

“It’s a no-brainer,” said one operative who works for a senator up for reelection in 2014. “The second term has been a bit of a disaster, his approval ratings are the lowest of his presidency and Washington is in disarray.”…

Many Democrats in Congress complain that Obama is indifferent to their concerns. There is also a broader sense on Capitol Hill that Obama just isn’t the guy they thought he was, who would deliver on his vaunted promises of hope and change.

The president arrived in Colorado this week. Udall did not appear with him. “It bothers me a lot,” one liberal Coloradan told a reporter, as she took her place at an Obama rally. Maybe Udall couldn’t believe that he was in a close race with Republican Cory Gardner, a cherub-faced congressman whose brightest moment in the spotlight came when he asked Kathleen Sebelius to defend the “brosurance” health care ad campaign. But Udall’s fear and trembling gave Gardner a week of easy attack lines. In campaigning, as in facing down a bear in the wilderness, it has never been a good idea to broadcast weakness…

Please remember that Mark Udall’s tap dance happened in a state that Barack Obama actually won. Twice! The 2014 election is likely to give us many more moments of gut-wrenching agony and Democrats going all Apostle Peter on the president they universally supported when elected in 2008. Members of the White House political team will grit their teeth and ask low-level campaign staffers if, you know, it would be OK for the commander-in-chief to show up. They will be told to call back in a few days. Often, they will be told, “No thanks, but send money.”

***

A convergence of security crises is playing out around the globe, from the Palestinian territories and Iraq to Ukraine and the South China Sea, posing a serious challenge to President Barack Obama’s foreign policy and reflecting a world in which U.S. global power seems increasingly tenuous.

The chaos has meant that the Obama administration finds itself in the middle of a second term reacting to rather than directing world events. Dangers for the president and for the U.S. are growing as militant groups gain greater control. The organization known as the Islamic State, which now holds parts of Iraq and Syria, poses a particular danger…

“Our allies are looking for a quarterback to call some plays here, and our body language sometimes doesn’t show that we’re doing that,” said Brian Katulis of the left-leaning Center for American Progress. “Obama’s always been a look-before-you-leap guy. And I think that leads to some of the confusion here at home, but also abroad.”

Increasingly friends and foes around the world seem comfortable disrespecting the United States . In Egypt, a court sentenced journalists to prison hours after Secretary of State John F. Kerry left Cairo expressing confidence in the government’s commitment to democracy. U.S. ally Bahrain, home to the Navy’s 5th Fleet, expelled an assistant secretary of state. Days after Obama visited the Philippines to support rule of law in the South China Sea, China towed a massive oil rig into waters claimed by Vietnam and, Vietnamese officials said, intentionally rammed two of their ships…

At home, the administration seems equally taken aback by the thousands of Central American children flooding across the Southwest border. It sends mixed signals on whether it wants to change the asylum law in response. In the most elementary sort of staffing snafu, the president found himself needlessly on the defensive during a trip to Texas because he refused to visit the border.

Meanwhile the White House message varies by the day. Growing economic inequality, which last December Obama said “challenges the very essence of who we are as a people,” now is rarely mentioned. There seems to be no strategy to propel objectives the White House had set forth as fundamental: immigration reform, trade deals with Asia and Europe, investment in education and infrastructure.

***

Their report concludes that in the last year as the United States and other Western countries have begun to ease some of the sanctions on Iran as an inducement to negotiate an end to the country’s nuclear weapons program, the Iranian economy has begun to recover.

The loosening pressure on Iran’s economy may help explain why most observers do not expect any breakthrough in talks this week in Vienna.

***

President Obama had just disembarked from Air Force One and was still on the tarmac in Rome when he turned to his host, John R. Phillips, the American ambassador to Italy, with an unexpected request: How about a dinner party tomorrow night?…

Sometimes stretching into the small hours of the morning, the dinners reflect a restless president weary of the obligations of the White House and less concerned about the appearance of partying with the rich and celebrated. Freewheeling, with conversation touching on art, architecture and literature, the gatherings are a world away from the stilted meals Mr. Obama had last year with Senate Republican leaders at the Jefferson Hotel in Washington…

In Rome in March, Mr. Piano said, the president seemed happy to talk about something other than politics and current events. “I think he was refreshed to sit down in a beautiful place, with good food, and talking with serenity about important things,” Mr. Piano said.

***

The president’s trips outside of Washington — or even just stops outside the White House — have become something of a coping mechanism. He’s taken to walking to and from events close to the White House, albeit with Secret Service agents and journalists trailing him closely. In between fundraisers and speeches in Colorado and Texas this week, Obama made time to drop by local restaurants for pizza and barbeque, as well as play a game of pool and have a beer with Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper.

Almost all of these types of events are planned by the White House, though not publicly announced before the president’s arrival. And the White House’s increasing reliance on such events as a way to garner attention opened the president up to ridicule from Republicans when after he declared in Texas that he wasn’t going to take a first-hand look at the humanitarian crisis at the Texas border because he was “not interested in photo ops.”

“Obama’s presidency has been defined by photo-ops and political theater,” said Kevin Madden, a Republican strategist who advised Obama’s 2012 presidential rival, Mitt Romney. “Every time he’s gotten in trouble, he’s sought to seize the airwaves or the podium to try to frame his crisis negatively.”

***

In one key respect, each president’s tenure has followed a similar arc. Each initially sought the White House promising to bridge the nation’s widening partisan divide. Clinton pledged to transcend “brain-dead policies in both parties” with his “New Democrat” agenda. Bush declared himself a “compassionate conservative” who would govern as “a uniter, not a divider.” Obama emerged with his stirring 2004 Democratic convention speech, evoking the shared aspirations of red and blue America, and took office embodying convergence and reconciliation…

Clinton pursued agreements across party lines more consistently than either Bush or Obama. But this persistent polarization likely owes less to the three men’s specific choices than to structural forces that are increasingly preventing any leader, no matter how well-intentioned, from functioning as more than “the president of half of America.”

All presidents find that events at home and abroad don’t always unfold as they had imagined or hoped. They find that they’re often unable to get things to turn out as they’d like.

This realization seems to have come as something of a surprise to a man who, while campaigning for the office, proclaimed that he was a better speechwriter than his speechwriters and a better political director than his political director…

Skittering and scampering doesn’t seem to be making things better. Blasting House Republicans for blocking legislation when they have passed more bipartisan bills than the Democratic Senate doesn’t pack much wallop.

Scuttle policies that aren’t working. The alternative is something Obama does not seem to have considered: Back up American promises and pledges abroad. Govern within the Constitution.

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That guy was a multifaceted murderous nut job. Don’t conflate him with us in any way. He is worse than a rabid animal.

Doc Holliday on July 14, 2014 at 11:57 PM

That he was Doc, but there was also a lot of the story that didn’t make it into the mainstream media version of what happened. Don’t get me wrong, I am not justify or making excuses for him. The kids he attacked and killed were at a jew hate rally, not that that justifies what he did.

What he tried to do was wrong, he was attempting to provoke Norway/Europe’s own version of Concord and Lexington. He attempted to use evil methods to try to do something good. That never works.

This dude is a major problem. Read his bio. Congressional Prog caucus.
His chief of staffs wife is vice mayor of Tucson, and his prog daughter follows in his footsteps on the school board where he started. Adele’

You know those Brietbart videos of ethnic study bullshit that happened down here?

You cannot do righteous things through evil methods. Europe is in deep shit, that is true. But it is up to the European people resist evil, not embrace it to get out of the trouble they are in. The same is true here in the US. If it comes to acts of violence, it must, like the American Revolution, come as a result of the America people defending themselves after acts of violence by the corrupt government, not by America citizens using violence against the corrupt government first.

Parms, while yur taking Butch off the Piker’s list, could you move my name off the “Missing Bum” list to “Wanted: Bodacious Bum” list?
Found my bum in the not so OK corral. Gave it to the tannery. I’d like to say it made a nice clutch but there was enough for a saddle bag…or two.

Our Republic is being governed by a hapless, neophyte, way in over his head.. statist. I don’t see this as a reason for celebration but an absolute tragedy. The Presidency is more important than partisan schadenfreude.

The true failure in “the system”.. is the press. They allowed, aided and abetted this fiction of Obama to their great shame and detriment of our nation. Shame on them.

They probably all get together at the Stampede in Temecula for drinks. They and their wives get out there for line dancing with the marines from Camp Pendleton, having a good laugh at the stupid Obama buffoons.

Indeed, I do, Rhonda. :) I’ve lately been reminded that I’ve earned a rest and I’m going to take some time to relax and decompress and smell the roses along the way. Thank you for thinking of me and asking, my equestrian friend. :)

Actually, obama made Baghdadi what he is today. His administration left him walk out of Camp Bucca knowing he was the most dangerous man in there.

All he had to do to follow his progress after release would be to watch the ISIS and ISIL videos they posted, just every day on Youtube and Liveleak, attacking Iraqi outposts and holding Shurahs demanding Iraqis join the Jihadist movement.

He could have also watched the videos and world news sources when ISIS and ISIL with Jabhat Al Nusra took over the Free Syrian Army Rebels that Obama was supporting with money, training and weapons.

(Maybe their execution and beheading videos of Syrian soldiers and civilians was a bit much for his candy-azz to see?

I’m having a bit of a set back health wise and high temps don’t help. No worries, comes with the territory. So I’m staying put for now. We may head up for the N. Calif. coast the beginning of Aug. I wish I had your swimming pool. It was 105 degrees today. Where is our G2M?

I’m sorry to hear that you’ve been feeling unwell, Rhonda. I hope you feel much better very soon. I wish you lived nearby. You’d always be more than welcome to use my pool, and it would be a pleasure to visit with you. :)

I have no idea what’s become of G2M. I was hoping he was on vacation, and if not, that he’s just taken a break from HA for awhile as so many often do for reasons of their own.

Good evening, Dil. :) How’s Mrs. Dil and young Mr. Dil? Have you managed to get any rest recently?

thatsafactjack on July 15, 2014 at 12:46 AM

Howdy Jackie :D

Young Mr.Dil is over my right shoulder playing some new game, about ready to put him up on the bed. Mrs. Dil was up today in the wheelchair a couple of times, had some physical therapy, but hurts an awful lot. That will pass soon I hope. It’s not so much from the surgery to fix her hip, it’s from laying for nearly 2 weeks without any movement or therapy to begin with, just a wad of pain pills.

The nursing home they sent her to initially was a complete dump and should be shut down. In order for her to get in a decent place with actual therapy I had to pay out of pocket. Thanks obama! I WILL REMEMBER THIS.

My rest…sort of…will come tomorrow a little, while I try to catch up on the housework and tidying up outside. (the lawn, my God how it doth grow).

So off I go, as soon as I get here I have to leave for the night. Sigh. I’ll catch up in the morning ;-)

I didn’t know that banned commenters, especially ones with records of habitual obscenity, including calls for sexual assault to be committed against certain conservative women, as KoolAid2 has, were able to quickly return with new names.